heya everyone, problem with a stout.

heya guys and gals,

im new here and have a small problem.

i am currently brewing an irish stout, by muntons in my 25l keg. i put this brew on about 5 days ago, and ive yet to see bubbles/gas escaping the air lock.

i have had a few hiccups with the brew.

1. instead of getting the water/beer level up to the 23l mark, my brother was helping me and told me to stop at the 25l mark while i was tipping the water in.

2. i used a full kg of dextrose and 5oo grams of dark malt powder - i shouldve put only 500g of dextrose in as advised my brew shop lady but at the time i figured it wouldnt really matter.

3. water temp may have been too warm when making the brew, but wasnt over 30 degrees,(possibly have killed off the yeast?) and cooled down quickly. is now sitting at 22-26 on my heat pad with a mink blanket wrapped around it.

4. while checking on the brew again, i discovered my grommet for the air lock was broken, so air/gasses may have been escaping while this was broken. took grommet off, and wrapped plumping tape around the air lock and jammed it back into the barrel lid. squeezed keg, and bubbles came out of airlock and couldnt hear any gasses escaping anywhere else.

however, after 5 days im pretty sure the brew should be bubbling along nicely, its my first time making stout so am a little worried. im thinking it may be possible i killed off the yeast accidently when making the brew, added too much sugar with the malt, or the 2l of extra water have not helped.

any suggestions, ideas and advice would be greatly apprecialed

Do you have any way to test the gravity of the beer, like a hydrometer? It's very possible that it fermented out without any obvious signs of activity. Do you see a ring of krausen, a creamy colored substance, around the inside of the fermeter above the liquid level?

You'll know if the yeast is working. If you're in doubt, it ain't.
I'd re-pitch.

Our you fermenting in a bucket or glass carboy. If its glass you will be able to see the fermentation process happening

the kausen is there, but brown in coulor, kinda looks like the yeast to be honest even though i stirred it very well when making. the hydrometer reading is 1.020. sorry, noob question, re-pitch?

solo103 said:

Our you fermenting in a bucket or glass carboy. If its glass you will be able to see the fermentation process happening

Click to expand...

nah plastic sadly. 25l one

If there's a krausen and the hydrometer is 1.020, I'm assuming that it was higher than that when you started or this is one "lite" beer, then the beer is fermenting. Leave it for another week and then take another hydrometer reading. There is no need to re-pitch.

thanks for the awesome feed back guys.
have checked the stout again today, its bubbling on the top a little, i just thought it was possibly froth from the sides of the barrel. so there is a little bit of fermentation going on there, and others in my family have heard the air lock bubble when they happen to be walking past it etc. i was thinking a stout would be a little like a light beer in the sense that it would bubble heaps, maybe not he case with stouts as they're heavier?
hydrometer reading is still 1.020, and had a bit of a taste of it, and it tastes nice as a stout should but not much alcohol to it. so im going to leave it for another 3-4 days and see what happens.

Quick question when you pitch the yeast do you airate the wert right after pitching either shaking the crapp out if it or using a oxygen stone and air pump or co2